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Indian Palaeolithic Transitions.

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Anek R Sankhyan Indu Talwar

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Indian Palaeolithic Transitions

A. R. Sankhyan & Indu Talwar

INTRODUCTION
An overview of the Palaeolithic diversity of the Old World may reveal
five/six major cultural transitions. The earliest was the Oldowan/Early
Acheulian transition, limited almost to the African continent and associated
with Homo habilis/Homo erectus evolution. It could have been parallel to
the Pre-Soanian/Soanian transition in the Potwar sub-Himalayan region
of South Asia. It was followed by the Early/Late Acheulian transition
recorded extensively in Africa, Asia and Europe with the spread of Homo
erectus. Followed by in succession was the Late Acheulian/Middle
Palaeolithic transition equally extensive in Africa, Europe and Asia, which
serves a window to see the emergence and spread of archaic Homo sapiens
and Neanderthals. But, the evolution and dispersion of anatomically
modern Homo sapiens is witnessed during the subsequent Middle
Palaeolithic/Upper Palaeolithic transition during late Pleistocene. The end
of the Upper Palaeolithic is followed by the agro-pastoral Mesolithic and/
or the Neolithic modern human populations that colonized the entire world
during late Holocene.
Indian or South Asian Palaeolithic diversity is conspicuous in three
typo-technological cultural complexes, viz., the sub-Himalayan Soanian,
the peninsular Acheulian, and the north-eastern Hoabinhinian and Upper
Annyathian (Sankhyan, 2009). The first two are the major Palaeolithic
cultural complexes and debated on their evolutionary development-
whether the Acheulian has evolved from the Soanian/ Chopper-Chopping
complex or they coexisted or are supplementary or created by two different
types of people or species. To appreciate the Homo erectus-Homo sapiens
interface, it is necessary to understand these complexes.
160 Asian Perspectives on Human Evolution

PRE-SOANIAN/SOANIAN TRANSITION
It is not conspicuous even though Soanian is reported from Lower
Pleistocene of Potwar (Rendell & Dennell, 1985). The Soanian complexes
are regarded creations of Homo erectus- a ‘big game hunter’ as documented
by fossils of elephants, rhinos, hippos, equids, bovids and cervids. In fact,
hominid fossil evidences associated with the pebble-cobble lithic cultures
of south and Southeast Asia are scarce, documented in China and Indonesia
only during Lower Pleistocene as the eastern group of the Homo erectus
found at Lentien, Djetis, Trinil and Zoukoudian; the subspecies,
“Siananthropus” was the author of the Zoukoudian culture as was
“Pithecanthropus” in Sangrian 2 and Trinil. The same hominins were
presumably present in the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan, India, Nepal
and Bangladesh) and from the adjoining regions (like Myanmar and
Malaya) presumed.
Mohapatra (1981, 1990, and 2007) viewed a remarkable individuality
of the Soanian unlike other pebble-cobble tool cultures, and noted that it
flourished through three successive evolutionary stages- Early, Late and
Evolved / Final Soan, spanning the period from Middle Pleistocene to
Early Holocene. Soanian tools are typo-technologically distinctive non-
biface or “pebble chopper/chopping”, made on pre-planned/well-chosen
handy rounded/oblong quartzite pebbles/cobbles flaked partially with
the cortex retained on the butt. They portray independent evolution in
three successive stages- ‘Early, Late and Evolved/Final Soan’ during
Middle Pleistocene to Early Holocene, but are mostly restricted to the duns
(Mohapatra, 2007) and occasionally in Frontal Range where we also find
sporadic occurrences of the Acheulian in surface contexts.

EARLY/LATE ACHEULIAN TRANSITION:

Unlike Soanian, Acheulian- a biface or “handaxe-cleaver” culture occurs
predominantly in the peninsular region and also evolved independently
into Late, Middle and Late developmental stages. The Acheulian man had
splitted large tubular boulders for preparing cores modified into handaxes,
cleavers, chopping tools, including discoids, spears, scrapers, etc. The
handaxes are bifacial as they are flaked on both surfaces with a sharp
cutting edge almost all-round, and generally larger (up to 13" long) than
the Soanian cobble choppers, and vary in shapes from pear to pyriform
and circular to ovate. The Handaxe could be used as a general purpose
butchering-tool sometimes also thrown as a missile, and the cleavers used
as cutting axes by hand for the flesh or wood or when tanged by hafting to
a wooden stick.
Indian Acheulian in general shows some differences (Pappu, 2001,
2002), yet it is technologically similar to the Old World (African and
European) Acheulian (McPherron, 2000; Noll and Petraglia, 2003). Early
Indian Palaeolithic Transitions 161

Acheulian as distinguished by symmetrical and unrefined bifaces and

cleavers, etc. is quite sparse in India, with only a few sites, such as Bori
dated to 670 Kya (Mishra et al., 1995) and Isampur dated to 1.27 Mya
(Paddayya et al., 2002) present stratified evidence suggesting the earliest
human occupation of South Asia during Lower Pleistocene. Presence of
Oldowan in the name of “Mahadevian” was visualised in Central Narmada
valley by Khatri (1961), though not yet fully ascertained.
The Late Acheulian, marked by great refinement and symmetry of
the bifaces, has been the most preponderant type in entire peninsular
India/subcontinent during Middle and Upper Pleistocene, but mostly
found in surface and variety of geomorphological or ecological contexts
(Pappu, 2001). Some important reported examples are found in the studies
of Khatri (1961, 1966), Armand (1985), Jacobson (1985), Misra (1985, 1989,
1995, 1998, 2001), Misra and Mate (1995), Paddayya et al. (2002), Clark
(1998), Noll and Petraglia (2003), Chauhan (2003), etc.
Middle Acheulian is merely a ‘transition’ between Early and Late
Acheulian (Jayaswal, 1978, 1982, 2009). Central Narmada Valley presents
unique stratified context of the Late Acheulian (H. de Lumley & Sonakia,
1985, Bhattacharya & Sonakia, 1989, Badam et al., 1986, Sankhyan, 1997 a,
b, 2005). The Late Acheulian are found near sources of raw material, such
as gravel or conglomerate beds and within sandy-pebbly gravel horizons;
generally overlying the basal boulder gravels comprising Lower
Palaeolithic artefacts (Guzder, 1980). The diminutive choppers and
handaxes of the Middle Palaeolithic (Guzder, 1980; Tewari et al., 2002;
Corvinus, 2002) could be pointers of a divide between the ‘light-duty’
assemblages of the Middle Palaeolithic and the ‘heavy-duty’ assemblages
of the Lower Palaeolithic. We may also visualise a local evolution of the
former from the latter.
Unlike that of the pebble-cobble cultures, hominid affiliation of the
Acheulian is much better documented. It was the culture of the Homo erectus
of the fully developed form and diversity. Appearance of this culture is
almost simultaneous in Africa and Europe. While its earlier form named
Homo ergaster is associated with the beginning of this culture in Africa; in
Europe it is named as Homo antecessor discovered from deposits dated to
Lower Pleistocene and early Middle Pleistocene (1.6 to 1.3 my in Spain).

THE LATE ACHEULIAN/MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC TRANSITION:

But the main course of the Acheulian in the Old World is attributed to
Homo neanderthalensis, though wide spread in Europe, had touched Africa
and Asia as well. However this culture is found in very advanced form in
several pockets in Asia during the Upper Pleistocene authored by the new
hominid–an archaic form of Homo sapiens–morphologically close to modern
man. This late Acheulian hominid affiliation as noted from Hathnora
(Narmada valley, India), Mughared-es-Skhul (Mt Carmel) and Djbel
162 Asian Perspectives on Human Evolution

Kafzeh (Gailee) is likely to include the Siwalik Frontal Range Acheulian

(hominid) whose tool outfit appears to be similarly late and advanced.
The Late Acheulian tools were more refined, symmetrical and thinner since
a soft-hammer or bone or antler was used to remove thinner and larger
flakes in a regular way on both sides of the handaxes. The author and co-
workers (Sankhyan et al., 2007; Sankhyan, 2009) have found abundant
symmetrical large ovate bifaces, U/V-shaped cleavers including large but
thin chopping tools from the U1 cemented gravel stratum, whose upper
part has yielded human fossils and is sandwiched by the U2 stratum having
yielded Middle Palaeolithic tools. We see a gradual decrease in size turning
into diminutive choppers, handaxes and tortoise cores, besides addition
of the specialized tools like knives, scrapers, spear heads, etc., made on
Levalloisian flakes and cores by prepared-core technique, plus inclusion
of new raw material, such as the fine-grained chert, jasper, agate, quartz
and chalcedony. Such simple Mousterian-like Levalloisian flake and core
tools were used by Neanderthals in Europe and late archaic Homo sapiens
in Africa and Southwest Asia 100 Kya as successful cultural adaptations
to diverse environments around the world including the temperate and
sub-arctic regions of the northern hemisphere with specialized big game
hunting.
In fact, we find mixing of both Late Acheulian and the Middle
Palaeolithic implements on the fossil hominin and other sites, also observed
elsewhere (Jayaswal, 1974; 1978, Mishra, 1995). It is the evidence of
transition and gradual local evolution as a result of distinct shift in land-
use or it is due to immigration and replacement by early Homo sapiens.
Similar transition has occurred at the Middle/Late Soan juncture in sub-
Himalayas likely independent of the peninsular event. The Soanian and
the Acheulian cultures appear separated by an imaginary Movius Line,
but sometimes diffused due to overlap or exchanges or hybridization
between the two peoples as is interpreted from the sporadic surface
occurrences of the Acheulian in the Soanian region and the vice versa. This
has happened during Holocene in the Frontal Range though not in the
duns. However, occurrences of the chopper/chopping tools in the
Acheulian Handaxe-cleaver Complex of Narmada valley and elsewhere
could actually be mainly due to specific activities, and rarely due to
exchanges/trading or capture/re-occupation of the sites by the non-
Acheulian man and the tools technologically look part of the same culture.
On the eastern end of India, we see a late arrival (35 Kya) of the Lower
Palaeolithic in Tripura showing unique innovation of stone tools made on
silicified fossil wood (Ramesh, 1986), yet typo-technologically they have
Hoabinhinian and Upper Annyathian affinities of Burma and South East
Asia (Sankhyan, 2007).
Indian Palaeolithic Transitions 163

THE MIDDLE/UPPER PALAEOLITHIC TRANSITION

Appearance of Upper Palaeolithic in archaeological record is viewed with
the appearance of the anatomically modern Homo sapiens. This Homo erectus-
Homo sapiens Interface is much debated and explained either by
replacement due to inter-continental migrations out of Africa, or by
regional continuity or parallel evolution. But, partial assimilation and
hybridization could also be visualized in South China, Java, Narmada
valley of India, etc. Located near the banks and mostly in surface contexts,
the Upper Palaeolithic stone tool kit of Narmada valley is, like any other
blade flake industry, abundant in diversified small blade tools types such
as knives, side scrapers, projectile points/ spears and arrow-heads, borers/
drills, awls, and burins, made largely on igneous rock nodules of quartz,
chert, agate, jasper, chalcedony and sometimes obsidian. They are on thin
and nearly parallel-sided flakes, at least twice as long as wide triangular
or trapezoidal in cross-section and of standardized shapes struck off from
a prepared core usually by punch flaking by using indirect percussion.
Compared to the earlier Middle Palaeolithic core and flake tools, the blade
flakes were far more efficient due to long sharp cutting edges, and therefore
related to higher selective behaviours for raw material curation and
exploitation, other symbolic behaviours reflecting increased mental and
cultural capabilities of the man.
UPPER PALAEOLITHIC/MESOLITHIC/NEOLITHIC TRANSITION
The unusual feature in the lithic succession in the sub-Himalayas is the
absence of the traditional Mesolithic– a transitional techno-cultural stage
between the Palaeolithic hunting/food-gathering and the Neolithic food
production. The Palaeolithic is directly succeeded by the Neolithic in the
sub-Himalayan warm and moist periglacial terrain abundant in vegetation
and animals. For instance in Tripura while the oldest terrace contains
Palaeolithic implements, the younger terraces contain Neolithic tools are
dated to ca.3500 to 1100 years B.P. (Ramesh, 1986). It is the other way
round in the Peninsular India/South Asia, showing absence of Neolithic
but wide occurrences of the Mesolithic or microlithic culture. We see a
total absence of the Neolithic in the Vindhyan-Satpura confinements of
Narmada valley abundant in Mesolithic culture.
In fact, the central Narmada valley alone provides unique encapsulated
archaeological evidence from Lower Palaeolithic to Mesolithic, including
the prehistoric rock art, and therefore was the region of intense human
activity throughout the Stone Age. Evidences reveal that the Narmada
valley had enjoyed a warm and equable climate during the Quaternary
period, which, coupled with its strategic mid-continental place between
East and West, made it one of the east-west passages of the prehistoric
man during Middle to Late Pleistocene. In other words, the Vindhyan-
Satpura confinement of Narmada Valley served as a haven and refuge or
a paradise to the prehistoric humans in South Asia.
164 Asian Perspectives on Human Evolution

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